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The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves [Paperback]

Matt Ridley (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
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Book Description

Publication Date: 31 Mar 2011

Shortlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction 2011.

Life is on the up.

We are wealthier, healthier, happier, kinder, cleaner, more peaceful, more equal and longer-lived than any previous generation. Thanks to the unique human habits of exchange and specialisation, our species has found innovative solutions to every obstacle it has faced so far.

In ‘The Rational Optimist’, acclaimed science writer Matt Ridley comprehensively refutes the doom-mongers of our time, and reaches back into the past to give a rational explanation for why we can – and will – overcome the challenges of the future, such as climate change and the population boom.

Bold and controversial, it is a brilliantly confident assertion that the 21st century will be the best for humankind yet.

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The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves + Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters + Nature via Nurture: Genes, experience and what makes us human
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Product details

  • Paperback: 464 pages
  • Publisher: Fourth Estate (31 Mar 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0007267126
  • ISBN-13: 978-0007267125
  • Product Dimensions: 13.2 x 19.9 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 17,098 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Review

‘A triumphant blast on the vuvuzela of common sense’ Boris Johnson

‘A glorious defence of our species… a devastating rebuke to humanity's self-haters’ Sunday Times

‘No other book has argued with such brilliance against the automatic pessimism that prevails’ Ian McEwan

‘His theory is, in a way, the glorious offspring that would result if Charles Darwin’s ideas were mated with those of Adam Smith’ The Economist

‘Original, clever and controversial’ Guardian

‘As a work of bold historical positivity it is to be welcomed. At every point cheerfulness keeps breaking through’ The Times

About the Author

Matt Ridley received his BA and D. Phil at Oxford researching the evolution of behaviour. He has been science editor, Washington correspondent and American editor of The Economist. He is the author of bestselling titles The Red Queen (1993), The Origins of Virtue (1996), Genome (1999) and Nature via Nurture (2003). His books have sold over half a million copies, been translated into 25 languages and been shortlisted for six literary prizes. In 2004 he won the National Academies Book Award from the US National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine for Nature via Nurture. In 2007 Matt won the Davis Prize from the US History of Science Society for Francis Crick: Discoverer of the Genetic Code. He is married to the neuroscientist Professor Anya Hurlbert.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Good, so long as you interrogate it 1 Sep 2012
By J. Goddard
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
There is much to admire in this book. Ridley makes a good overall case, based on solid and substantial research. It is a hefty corrective to much sloppy thinking in current political and social debates. It's a pity he mars it by some glib over-simplication in places and by caricaturing his opponents to a silly degree.

On the plus side, he says many things that need to be said. It's a book I'd recommend to anybody, simply because of the sheer number of shibboleths of both left and right that he deftly and enjoyably skewers. This sort of thing is essential in a world where too many of all political persuasions have given up thinking for themselves and rely instead on timeworn cliches. He also, true to his rationalist title, leans heavily on a weighty ballast of credible evidence drawn from a range of good sources.

It's a pity, then, that in places he lets his enthusiasm run away with him and writes like a journalist rather than an academic. For example, I'm no expert in primatology, but even I know that you can't make simplistic points about the relative nastiness of our fellow primates (p.65) without acknowledging that there are relevant distinctions between our two closest cousins, the common chimpanzee and the bonobo. Given his academic credentials, Ridley should be better than this (indeed, I'm surprised it wasn't pointed out to him by Frans de Waal, whom he cites in his acknowledgments). Then again, he isn't the first well-known writer to dive into into the exciting field of primatology, grab the first thing he sees to back up his point and rush for the surface to catch breath; see Francis Fukuyama's latest on the origins of political order for an even worse example of exactly the same approach.... Read more ›
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24 of 28 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Optimistic argument that life on Earth is better than you think 10 Nov 2010
By Rolf Dobelli TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
Send your inner pessimist packing - along with organic crops and ethanol. That's the contrarian message of Matt Ridley's insightful, entertaining look at humankind's steady progress over the millennia. Ridley dips into biology and economics to support his case that life is good and getting better. His wide-ranging look at humanity's past and future makes it clear that those who long for the good old days just don't realize how rugged hunting and gathering or medieval medical care must have been. Ridley meanders at times, yet, as the title suggests, his book offers a fundamentally optimistic analysis of humankind's ability to solve the planet's problems, even now. getAbstract recommends it to readers seeking a thought-provoking analysis of contemporary issues that doesn't hew to conventional wisdom.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Things ARE getting better 30 July 2012
By Eliantolla
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
If you listen to the news, it's hard not to get depressed about how awful things are in the world - war, famine, poverty, ecological disaster, climate change, pollution, global warming, etc etc.
But this book shows that actually, and perhaps counter-intuitively, things are actually getting steadily better in the world as a whole.
For more people, in more places, the indicators of improvement are gradually consolidating and growing - the defeat of childhood diseases, life expectancy and longevity, family incomes, standards of education, travel, growth of democracy or electoral freedom, life choices, and so on.
Each chapter gives statistics and references, and seems to be very thorough. The graphics are easy to understand.
No doubt the book is written from a right-wing-ish point of view, but it's a good antidote to the relentless gloom and doom of the media, which can only survive on bad news and disaster. It does not gloss over the difficulties still faced by too many people, but it provides a viewpoint over time, and not just responding to each crisis or peril as it happens.
In some ways, this is a rather shocking book. There is such a clumpish mass of received opinion about what's wrong in the world, and I have found it is quite hard to challenge the set views about it all, but this book attempts to do that.
It does not say things are 'good' or even 'good enough' but it does say things are getting better - for lots of people, in lots of ways, in lots of places.
I found it an invigorating read, and I wish I had bought it as a 3D version, and not on Kindle, where the whole footnote/indexing/referencing systems are so clunky.
Recommended.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Original, convicing, challenging 5 April 2012
By JPMT
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The (I think original) theory propounded in this book is that our species, uniquely, continues to evolve through the mechanism of exchange, a social process that operates much more quickly than genetic advance. I find the author's detailed argument at least as convincing as the Darwinian model from which it's derived, although of course such theories are notoriously difficult to test. Still, I hope someone takes the time to simulate this model, since that would help us understand the factors that speed it up and slow it down.

The optimism in the title is indeed rational since it's based on an historical assessment of of the way the mechanism has led to mankind's explosion from a few hunter gatherers to the dominant species on the planet. Again, I was fairly convinced.

The final thesis concerns the doom-sayers, who the author shows have always been with us. I particularly liked his dissection of the IPCC models, which imply that we should impoverish ourselves now so to ensure that 100 years hence our descendants are 20 times better off, instead of the mere 19 times they'd be if we do nothing.

And yet, the book creates a concern. No, more optimistically, a challenge!

The challenge is those doom-sayers - you can see the way they think in the negative reviews of this book. These folk, in spite of humanity's unprecedented wealth (see Cool it: The sceptical environmentalist's guide to global warming) want to stop our advance and are getting louder and more desperate the higher we climb.... Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars refreshing and heretical. spread the word. get positive and do good
Great riposte to the Pessimists who always have a scare to worry about. Great sweep of history and effective use of statistics to build case for optimism
Published 20 days ago by Mr. B. Lynch
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant book
Another fascinating and wide-ranging review by this exceptional author. A great antidote to eco-pessimism.
Full of absorbing ideas. Read more
Published 2 months ago by JD
3.0 out of 5 stars Good points
Worth a read, but nothing special. It drags on a bit and becomes repetitive and skim-readable towards the end, making you question it's thickness. Quite one-sided
Published 3 months ago by Piers
5.0 out of 5 stars There is light at the end of the tunnel
This book really cheered me up. The future may not be as bleak as so many predict. Ridley's argument that specialisation, trade and human creativity will get us out of many of the... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Nigel Bevan
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful upbeat book
Even though I was brought up by a physicist father and have a technical bent it is all too easy to get downhearted by all the doomsayers with their emotional, illogical and... Read more
Published 4 months ago by A. W. Bridger
4.0 out of 5 stars A rare and refreshing point of view!
Ridley argues with a volume of credible justification and evidence, that it is man's unique ability/tendency to connect, in order to exchange and barter goods, knowledge and... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Alexandra
5.0 out of 5 stars an valauable counterpoint perspective in trying times
In the "Rational Optimist", Matt Ridley puts forward a convincing and very readable explanation of how vocational specialisation has shaped human society and how continuous... Read more
Published 6 months ago by duncan mcgregor CEnv FIMMM CEng FICE
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding book!
Book arrived in time, looking good and calling for fast reading.
So, product condition: good
Order: good.
Book: outstanding! Read more
Published 8 months ago by gholem
4.0 out of 5 stars A healthy and contrarian view to the dominant pessimistic viewpoint
Book Review: The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley
Natural resources are running out, we are polluting a planet that is already overcrowded, the recent rioting in the UK shows... Read more
Published 9 months ago by A. Williams
5.0 out of 5 stars A Stimulating Read
If you are fed up with newspapers whingeing about population growth,running out of food,global warming, etc. etc. then this is the book for you! Read more
Published 9 months ago by The Good Doctor.
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